Designing flexible, technologically advanced teaching spaces

Virginia Tech New Classroom Building - Programming, Planning, and Design

Virginia Tech's New Classroom Building supports interactive, technology-enabled teaching across multiple departments. We provided programming, planning, and design to combine science instruction, flexible classrooms, and informal study space into one connected leaning environment.

Interdisciplinary teaching labs and adaptable classrooms support different course formats and group sizes. This includes Student-Centered Active Learning Environment with Upside-Down Pedagogies, or SCALE-UP, rooms. Clear sightlines, transparent partitions, and a straightforward layout help students and faculty connect and make the building easy to navigate.

A central grand staircase and adjacent study niches, soft-seating, and bar-height workspaces create places to pause, meet, and work between classes. Glass-fronted classrooms and technology-equipped collaboration areas make team-based learning visible, while "classatories"—hybrid classroom-labs located between wet labs—let students move from computation to hands-on experimentation and analysis within a single period.